The left column lists alphabetically the name and occupation of the distinguished Black person. The right column lists the names of the Caucasian, Asian, or Latino or "significant other" (SO). The SO designation could mean a common law marriage or a serious relationship of some duration that did not result in marriage. Generally, the maiden name of the married non-Black partner is given except in several instances.
Absent from the list are some well-known and documented couplings which could not be included here because the name of the non-Black partner has not been established, including civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell whose marriage proposal from a certain German 'Herr baron von D.' she mentions in her autobiography; pioneer filmmaker Oscar Micheaux who decided not to disclose the name of the blond Scottish-American woman he tutored then fell in love with; and Martin Luther King Jr. who was headed toward marriage to a young German-American woman he met while studying at Crozer seminary.
Notable Black Non-Black Spouse/Significant Other
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball star Cheryl Pistono (SO)
Ira Aldridge, Shakespearean actor Margaret Gill, Amanda Von Brandt
Marcus Allen, football star Kathryn Eickstaedt
Felipe Alou, pro baseball coach Lucie Gagnon
Wally 'Famous' Amos, cookie mogul Christine Harris
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General Nane Lagergren
Maya Angelou, author-poet Tosh Angelos, Paul du Feu
Little Anthony, pop singer Linda Gourdine
Pearl Bailey, singer-actress Louis Bellson
Imamu Baraka, dramatist-critic-activist Hettie Cohen
Charles Barclay, basketball star Maureen Lynn Blumhardt
Shirley Bassey, pop singer Sergio Novak
Don Baylor, baseball manager Rebecca Giles
Jennifer Beals, 'Flashdance' actress Alexandre Rockwell
Shari Belafonte, actress Robert Harper, Sam Behrens
Harry Belafonte, actor-singer Julie Robinson
Albert Belle, baseball star Stephanie Bugusky (SO)
Billy Blanks, exercise-karate expert Gayle Blanks
Allan Boesak, anti-apartheid leader Elna Botha
James Boggs, labor activist-scholar Grace Lee
Barry Bonds, baseball star Susan 'Sun' Margreth
Julian Bond, civil rights activist Pamela Sue Horowitz
Lisa Bonet, actress Brian Kest (SO)
Ed Bradley, CBS newsman Priscilla Coolidge
Carol Moseley-Braun, U.S. Senator Michael Braun
Todd Bridges, actor Dori Smith
Lonnie Bristow, doctor-AMA president Marilyn Hingslage
Edward Brooke, U.S. Senator Remigia, Anne Flemming
George Stanford Brown, actor-director Tyne Daly
Drew 'Bundini' Brown, boxing trainer Rhoda Palestine
James Brown, pop singer 'King of Soul' Adrienne Rodriguez
Willie Brown, San Francisco mayor Carolyn Carpeneti (SO)
Anatole Broyard, New York Times book reviewer Alexandra Nelson
Frank Bruno, British boxer Laura Mooney
Kobe Bryant, basketball star Vanessa Laine
Grace Bumbry, opera singer Erwin Jaeckel
Selma Burke, sculptor (Roosevelt dime) Herman Kobbe
Naiomi Campbell, fashion model Flavio Biatore (SO)
Irene Cara, singer-actress Conrad Palmisano
Hazel Carby, Yale professor Michael Denning
Rod Carew, baseball star Marilynn Levy
Mariah Carey, pop singer Tommy Mattola
Diahann Carroll, actress Monte Kay, Freddie Glusman, Vic Damone
Nell Carter, singer-actress Roger LaRocque, George Krynicki
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, boxer Lisa Peters
Elizabeth Catlett, sculptor Francisco Mara
Barbara Chase-Riboud, novelist-painter Marc Riboud, Sergio Tosi
Don Cheatle, actor Bridget Coulter
Chubby Checker, pop singer Catharina Lodders
Neneh Cherry, pop singer Cameron McVey
Rae Dawn Chong, actress Owen Baylis, C. Thomas Howell
Johnnie Cochran, attorney Patricia Sikora (SO)
Mary Cole, widow of Nat King Cole Gary Devore
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, symphony composer Jessie Fleetwood Waimisley
Sean 'Puffy' Combs, rap music promoter Jennifer Lopez (SO)
Coolio, rap singer Josefa Salinas
Ward Connerly, conservative activist Ilene Crews
Ellis Cose, author-journalist Lee Llambelis
Dorothy Dandridge, actress Jack Denison
Billy Daniels, pop singer Pierrette Daniels
Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter Juliet Greco (SO)
Sammy Davis Jr., pop singer-actor-dancer Mai Britt
Samuel Delany, science fiction author Marilyn Hacker
William Demby, novelist Lucia Drudi
Suzanne de Passe, music/tv executive Paul Le Mat
James DePriest, symphony conductor Ginette Grenier
Eric Dickerson, football star Rea Ann Silva (SO)
Father Divine, religious cult leader Edna Rose Hitchings
Dean Dixon, symphony conductor Vivian Rifkin
Michael Dorn, 'Star Trek' actor Wendy Dorn
Frederick Douglass, abolitionist-activist Helen Pitts, Ottilie Assing (SO)
Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize poet Fred Viebahn
St. Clair Drake, social anthropologist Elizabeth Dewey Johns
W.E.B. Du Bois, social activist-scholar Dora Marbach (SO), Amalie Lebenfeldt (SO)
Alexander Dumas, French novelist Marie Duplessis (SO), Lola Montez (SO)
Katherine Dunham, choreographer John Platt
Marian Wright Edelman, childrens' activist Peter Edelman
Christopher Edley Jr., Harvard law professor Tana Pesso
Julius Erving (a.k.a Dr. J), basketball star Samantha Stevenson (SO)
Mercer Ellington, band leader Lena Ellington
Percival Everett, novelist Francesca Rochberg
Frantz Fanon, radical theorist-psychiatrist Marie-Josephe Duble
James Farmer, civil rights activist Lula A. Peterson
Roberta Flack, singer Steven Novosel
Gail Fisher, 'Mannix' actress Joe Levy
Red Foxx, comedian-actor Yun Chi Chung, Kaho Cho
Henry Louis Gates, Harvard professor Sharon Lynn Adams
Marvin Gaye, pop singer Eugenie Vis (SO), Deborah Derrick (SO)
Robin Givens, actress Svetozar Marinkovic
Whoopie Goldberg, comedian-actress David Claessen, Lyle Trachtenberg
Cuba Gooding Jr., actor Sara Kapfer
Charles Gordone, playwright Jeane Warner
Louis Gossett Jr., actor Christina Mangosing
Lorenz Graham, author Ruth Morris
David Alan Grier, actor Maritza Rivera
Roosevelt Grier, football star-actor Margie Hanson
Archibald Grimke, 19th century scholar-activist Sarah E. Stanley
Bryant Gumbel, TV newsman Hillary Quinlan (SO)
Greg Gumbel, TV sports newsman Marcy Kaszynski
Herbie Hancock, jazz pianist Gudrun Meixner
Lorraine Hansberry, Pulitzer Prize playwright Robert B. Nemiroff
Clarence Harmon, mayor of St. Louis Janet Kelley
Ollie Harrington, cartoonist Helga Richter
Dorian Harwood, actor Ann McCurry
Franco Harris, football star Dana Dokmanovich
Sally Hemings, slave Thomas Jefferson (SO)
Lloyd Haynes, actor Sandra Haynes
Jimi Hendrix, rock guitarist Monika Dannemann (SO)
Matthew Henson, North Pole explorer Akatingwah (SO)
Chester Himes, novelist Leslie Packard
Gregory Hines, dancer-actor Patricia Panella, Pamela Koslow
Lena Horne, pop singer Lenny Hayton
Charlene Hunter-Gault, TV journalist Walter Stovall
Iman, fashion model David Bowie
Isaiah Jackson, symphony conductor Helen Tuntland
Janet Jackson, pop singer Rene Elizondo
LaToya Jackson, pop singer Jack Gordon
Michael Jackson, pop singer Lisa-Marie Presley, Debbie Rowe
Reggie Jackson, baseball star Jenny Campos
Ahmad Jamal, jazz pianist Laura Hess-Hay
Rick James, pop singer-musician Tanya Hijiazi
Al Jarreau, pop singer Susan Phyllis Hall?.
Jack Johnson, boxing champion Etta Durea, Lucille Cameron, Irene Pineau
James Earl Jones, actor Julienne Marie, Cecilia Hart
Grace Jones, fashion model-singer Jean Paul Goude (SO)
Quincy Jones, composer-arranger Ulla Anderson, Peggy Lipton, Nastassja Kinski (SO)
June Jordan, poet-essayist Michael Meyer
Ernest J. Just, biologist Margaret Boveri (SO), Hedwig Schnetler (SO)
Randall Kennedy, Harvard law professor Yvedt Matory
Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya Edna Clarke
Seretse Khama, President of Botswana Ruth Williams
Chaka Khan, pop singer Richard Holland
Jamaica Kincaid, writer Allen Shawn
Preston King, American-British professor Helen Stern
Eartha Kitt, singer-actress William McDonald
Yusef Komunyakaa, Pulitzer Prize poet Mandy Jane Sayer
Yaphet Kotto, actor Rita Dittman, Antoinette Pettyjohn, Tessie Sinahon
Jewell Lafontant, attorney-politician Naguib Mankarious
Cleo Laine, pop singer John Duckworth
Andrea Lee, writer Tom Fallows
Julius Lester, writer-educator Milan Sabatini
David Levering Lewis, Pultizer Prize scholar Sharon Lynn Siskind
Henry Lewis, symphony conductor Marilyn Horne
Reginald F. Lewis, millionaire businessman Loida Nicolas
Calvin Lockhart, actor Lynn Sloan
Louis Lomax, journalist Robinette Kirk
Davey Lopes, baseball coach Linda Bandover
Glenn Loury, conservative economist Linda Datcher
Taj Majal, singer-musician Anna De Leon
Malcom X, Black Muslim leader Sophia (SO)
Karl Malone, basketball star May Kenzie
Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice Cecilia A. Suyat
Mark Mathabane, South African author Gail Ernsberger
Ali Mazrui, African scholar Molly Vickerman
Barbara McNair, actress Rich Manzie, Ben Strahan
Charlie Mingus, jazz saxophonist Camilla Gross, Celia Nielson, Susan Ungaro
Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, UCLA administrator Keith Kernan
Edwin Moses, track star Myrella Bordt
Nichelle Nicols, 'Star Trek' actress Gene Roddenberry (SO)
Yannick Noah, French tennis star Heather Stewart-Whyte, Cecilia Rhode
Ken Norton Jr., football star Angela Fike
Tony Oliva, baseball star Gordette Oliva
Alan Page, football star-judge Diane Sims
Nell Painter, Princeton U. historian Glenn R. Shafer
Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist Chan Richardson (SO)
Gordon Parks, photographer-author Genevieve Young
Floyd Patterson, boxer Janet Seaquist
Orlando Patterson, Harvard sociologist Nerys Wyn Thomas
Melvin Van Peebles, film director-author Maria Marx
Pele, Brazilian soccer star Rosemarie Cholby, Assiria Lemos
Clarence Pendleton, conservative bureaucrat Margrit Krause
Oscar Peterson, jazz musician Sandra King
Pio Pico, last Mexican governor of California Maria Ignacia Alvarado
Scottie Pippen, basketball star Larsa Younan
Sidney Poitier, actor Joanna Shimkus
Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Congressman Yvette Marjorie Flores
Adam Clayton Powell III, journalist Beryl Slocum
Michael Powell, FCC chairman Jane Knott
Prince, pop singer Mayte Garcia
Richard Pryor, comedian-actor Jennifer Lee, Shelly Bonus, Maxine Silverman (SO)
Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet Natalia Goncarova
Franklin Raines, CEO of Fannie Mae Wendy Farrow
Lou Rawls, pop singer Lana Jean
Ishmael Reed, novelist-critic Carla Blank
Ving Rhames, actor Deborah Reed (SO)
Lionel Richie, pop singer Diane Alexander
Doc Rivers, baseball pitcher Kristin Campion
Minnie Ripperton, pop singer Richard Rudolph
Paul Robeson, social activist, singer-actor Freda Diamond, (SO), Uta Hagen (SO)
Paul Robeson Jr. , journalist-activist Marilyn Greenberg
Dennis Rodman, basketball star Carmen Electra
J.A. Rogers, self-taught historian Helga Beisenthal
Roxy Roker, actress Sy Kravitz
Diana Ross, pop singer Arne Naess, Robert Silberstein
Richard Roundtree, actor Karen Cernia
Forrest Rouse, physicist Smadar Lavie
Bill Russell, basketball star Didi Catherine Anstett
Sade, British pop singer Carlos Scolan
William Scarborough, Wilberforce U. president Sarah Bierce
George Schuyler, author Josephine E. Lewis
Leopold Senghor, President of Senegal Colette Hubert
Joe Simon, Pop singer Melanee Simon
O.J. Simpson, football star-actor Nicole Brown
Naomi Sims, fashion model Michael Findlay
Memphis Slim, blues musician Christine Chatman
William Gardner Smith, novelist Solange Royez, Ira Rueben
Wesley Snipes, actor Donna Wong (SO)
Claude Steele, Stanford U. psychologist Dorothy Munson
Shelby Steele, conservative critic-educator Rita Steele
Robert Stepto, Yale professor Michele Leiss
William Grant Still, symphony composer Verna Avery
Carl Stokes, mayor of Cleveland Raija Kostadinov
Sly Stone, pop singer Kathy Silva
Woody Strode, athlete-actor Luukialuana Kalaeloa
Donna Summers, pop singer Bruce Sudano
Henry O. Tanner, painter Jessie Olssen
Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court judge Virginia Lamp
Debi Thomas, Olympic skater Brian Venden Hogen, Chris Bequette
Frank Thomas, baseball star Elise Silver
Jean Toomer, novelist Margery Latimer, Marjory Content
Tina Turner, pop singer Erwin Bach (SO)
Neil de Grasse Tyson, astronomer Alice Mae Young
James Van DerZee, photographer Gaynella Katz
Ivan Van Sertima, author-educator Maria Nagy
Greg Vaughn, baseball star Michele Vaughn
Ben Vereen, dancer-singer Nancy Brunner
Shirley Verrett, opera singer Louis LoMonaco
Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize poet Sigrid Nama (SO)
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize novelist Mel Leventhal
Herschel Walker, football star Cindi DeAngelis
Kara Walker, artist Klaus Burgel
Dianah Washington, pop singer Raphael Campos
Charles White, artist Frances Barrett
Walter F. White, NAACP leader Poppy Cannon
John Edgar Wideman, novelist Judith Goldman
Roger Wilkins, journalist-educator May Meyers
Billy Dee Williams, actor Teruko Kakagami
Rev. Cecil Williams, social activist Janice Mirikatani
Deniece Williams, pop singer Brad Westering
Joe Williams, jazz singer Jillean Milne Hughes-D'Aeth
John A. Williams, novelist Lorrain Isaac
Montel Williams, talk show host Grace Morley
Vanessa Williams, pop singer-beauty queen Bruce Hanson (SO)
Fred Williamson, actor-director Linda Williamson
Charles V. Willie, Harvard sociologist Mary Sue Conklin
Flip Wilson, comedian Tuanchai Davis
William Julius Wilson, Harvard sociologist Beverly Ann Huebner
August Wilson, playwright Constanza Romero
Lionel Wilson, mayor of Oakland, CA Dorothy Wilson
Nancy Wilson, pop singer Julio Ruiz (SO)
Alfre Woodard, actress Roderick Spencer
Tiger Woods, golfer Joanna Jagoda (SO)
Nathan Wright Jr., Black power scholar Carolyn May
Richard Wright, novelist Dhima Rose Meadman, Ellen Poplar
Frank Yerby, novelist Blanca Calle Perez
Max Yergan, Spingarn Medalist-missionary Lena Halpern
Al Young, writer-editor Arlin Belck
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